Travel

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Summer. Hawaii. What could be better on those hot days on the island than Hawaiian shaved ice?? I was in Kauai for a total of 5 days and I tried one shave ice per day.

My first stop was the town of Kapaa on the drive up to the North Shore.

Ono Ono Shave Ice
4-1292 Kuhio Hwy, Kapaa

My first stop was a great stop. The portion is huuge and the texture of the shave ice is so fluffy and airy! I got the tropical flavors with a snow cap and it certainly satisfied my craving for shave ice. A shack tucked around the corner of a strip mall, this feels like the quintessential Hawaiian shave ice spot.

This vintage trailer doles out healthier and fun versions of shave ice with syrup made with all natural and fresh ingredients and no high fructose corn syrup. Other than the usual fruit syrups they also offer flavor combos like chai or a cold brew coffee with cream, or a coconut flavor topped with chia seeds. Hipster shave ice! The menu changes regularly and they want you to refer to Instagram for the latest. They're only open Wed-Sat from 11am-3pm but they do run out of popular flavors, so come early to get your pick. This is definitely worth a try, especially if you're getting tired of the usual type of shave ice.Hee Fat General Store *BEST*

4-1354 Kuhio Hwy, Kapaa

This place is hidden inside Hee Fat General Store, which sells clothing and souvenirs. My favorite! Here, you can either get the regular syrups or splurge a couple bucks more for the real fruit syrup - do it, it's worth it and you're on vacation. The ice here is fluffy like the one at Ono Ono but because of the real fruit syrup, it takes the top place since the real fruit syrup was really good!

JoJo's Avenue Shave Ice
9899 Waimea Rd, Waimea, HI 96796
Apparently there's a controversy behind this place as the owner was the original owner of JoJo's Shave Ice down the road. When they sold it, the buyer was supposed to change the name but they never did, so the original owner opened JoJo's Avenue Shave Ice instead - so this is the original. They have a lot of flavor and topping options and it's definitely a good and satisfying stop, but I thought the ice was too dense for my taste. I prefer the fluffier ones at the three places above. This place also serves shave snow.

Uncle's Shave Ice

2829 Ala Kalanikaumaka St, Koloa, HI 96756
Uncle's is inside the Kukui'ula shopping center and is a good pick for Koloa. The texture is better than JoJo's Avenue, in my opinion, and I quite like the flavor of the syrups here.